Tower of Regrets
by Wishing4dreams
Summary: From hokage to baby, how will Tobirama adapt to this new reality?. TOG/Naruto crossover in the TOG universe
1. Chapter 1

A/N:

**For Naruto fans**: Even though this story count as a crossover, you will be able to read it just fine without knowledge of the TOG universe, you will just learn about the world alongside Tobirama

**As for the ToG fans** who don't know about Naruto, you could just pretend that our mc is a reincarnated OC.

Hello, this is my first try at writing anything so I would appreciate any advice you may have for me, also English is my second language, so I ask to be forgiven in advance for any grammatical error found.

**Chapter 1**

When I regained my conscious darkness was all there was, I don't even know where I am or how I got here, what I do know is that I died. It was a good death though, giving my life for the next generation, for my village, but I would be lying to myself if I said I wouldn't have like to accomplished more for the dream of my brother and the sacrifice of my family. To maybe live a little longer and see it to the end, but I did what I could, it's up to them now.

_'I wonder, are you still waiting for me? Hashirama, Itama, Kawarama'._

I can't but hope to see them again… if this is the place we go after we die, maybe I could, though I would not delude myself in thinking that I deserve a good fate. In the end, being a ninja is not for the kindhearted. And though this place of nothingness seems to be worse than something out of my nightmares, it may be what I deserve, solitude and darkness.

I can't see nor hear anything, cant even feel the flow of time. What I could feel though, was my despair growing stronger. It was hard for me, as a man who likes to be in control, not knowing anything is hell. In the end I could only force myself to stay calm and find refuge in the one safe place left, my mind.

I don't know how long I spent reliving my memories and experiences, thinking about things I could have done better, wishing I could have been better, at least enough to save them…those dear to me

Family and power, that was the answer I arrive in the end. Family to share the joy of life and power to protect it.

I had the first but lacked the second. Even as one of the strongest shinobi of my time it was not enough to save them, and when they were gone, all I had left of them was their dreams. Even then I couldn't finish what Hashirama started and end up paying the ultimate sacrifice for those dreams, and though I will never regret it, I wish I could have done more. To have seen their dreams of peace to the end, so that maybe if I get to see them again I could do it with my head held high… now I'm alone, without a propose and only endless what ifs to keep my mind occupied.

Suddenly something happen that made me stop my depressive train of thoughts. For the first time since I died I perceived a change in the darkness. It started as a small light, like a lonely star in the night but it soon grow to consume all darkness and end up overwhelming my fragile and still recovering senses, after the blinding light I felt pain and beyond that I thought I heard the crying of a child but a heavy exhaustion took hold of me and my conscious soon faded.

The next few months where a time of growing confusion and lots of sleep. I knew somehow, that I was now a baby, but my still developing brain couldn't hold the vastness of my thinking process nor the amount of memories I had of my previous life. And that is why, I think, that my Tobirama self was suppressed for a time, or at least that is what I have concluded now.

It's been 8 months since I've been born in this place, and I can't help but feel conflicted. I have been giving a new life, a new opportunity to live a life without regrets, and still keeping the memories and experiences of my past I think that maybe, this time, I could do it. but there was something holding me back, a deep sadness of knowing that maybe I won't get to see my family again…

_'family and power, wasn't that my conclusion? Nothing changes, I have a family in this life as well so I will strive forward to do my best for them, and when the time comes maybe I will get to see my brothers as a man who not only did his best but also succeeded in protecting those he loves'_ this thinking I arrived is my pillar of support and my determination to live.

As of now the amount of people I have seen in this new life numbers just 3. My new parents Jayce and Tyra and my caretaker who is also my cousin, named Mira, both my cousin and my father have blue hair and eyes, so I guess they share blood, while my mother has deep red hair and eyes. They all look quite young and beautiful, so I don't think I will have anything to complain about my looks, not that it matters much, at least to me. Apart from that it seems that I also have an older brother whose name I don't know, and I have yet to see.

There is not much more that I could get of the few conversations I got to listened as my understanding of the language is still lacking. They have mentioned something about a tower a lot, and also something about a main and branch family. I'm guessing, having seen the way my family and specially father hold himself, that we are part of some noble family, probably branch members though I can't say for certain.

My main concerned right now is whether I got to keep my chakra or not, for I have no doubt that one of my goals will be to grow in power and for that having chakra will be a huge advantage, sadly I'm too young to know right now, my physical energy its too little so I will have to wait and see, in the case I lack chakra I will need to find another way to grow in strength.

As the months pass all I got to do was, gather information, practice the language, sleep and planned for the future, as of now I was learning how to read with my cousin Mira, who seems to like reading to me though I would prefer if she would answer my every question instead of ignoring me and pinching my cheeks.

"that's it for today little Sylas, you are learning pretty fast, are you that desperate to get rid of your beautiful cousin?" Mira asked me with sad eyes

She likes to tease me a lot, and that's why I always end up pretending that she didn't ask me anything, and today is no different, so while ignoring her question I was quick to ask for a story about the tower, which she has been promising me for days now, and which was my true objective for extending this sessions, I had learned to read months ago.

"mmm I did promise you one and its about time for you to know a little about the tower" said Mira while resting her head in a pillow.

Hearing her response, Tobirama now called Sylas sat straight as an arrow and focus his whole attention in his cousin, this will be his first opportunity to understand more of the world he is now living in, and he wasn't planning on wasting it.

"Pay attention, and hold your questions for later, okay little cousin?"

I nod at this, and seeing my agreement she continue saying "Right, so as you know the place or better said world we are living right now is called 'the tower' in the 'Zahard empire', the tower is divided in 3 parts, the inner tower, the outer tower and the middle area, right now there are 135 confirmed floors in the tower. I will start by explaining how the Zahard empire came to be and this way you will have a better understanding of the different areas and workings of the tower, are you with me so far?" she asked, preoccupied that it may be a little too hard to understand for a two-year-old, even if the boy in question was a baby-demon, at least in her opinion.

Understanding her worries, I was quick to reply "don't worry cousin you are always saying I'm too smart for my age, so believe in me a little more, I have gotten everything so far"

"mmm you are right I'm glad to have such a smart little cousin, I will continue with the story then."

"In the ancient times when there was no civilization inside the tower, Zahard and the ten great warriors came into the tower and started to go up, conquering floor after floor by passing the tests of the different guardians residing in each of them, but after reaching the 134th floor they suddenly stopped, Zahard became king of the tower by making a contract with the guardians, founding that way the 'Zahard empire' and the 10 great warriors that climbed with him became the heads of the 10 great noble families."

"why did they stop at the 134th floor?"

"nobody knows the answer to that, it is said that the one who reach the top of the tower could have anything he wanted, though as of now nobody has made it past the 134th floor. In the present those who are worthy to climb the Tower are chosen from the residential district in the Middle area, which is mostly populated by rankers, regulars and their families , or the Outer Tower where the natives of the Tower live, most of the natives don't even know about the tower and the Zahard empire, having their own kingdoms and living their entire lives in them, though if they are chosen, they can then become regulars and are transported to the second floor in the inner tower which is where the tests to climb the tower happens, all this is done by Headon, the guardian of the tower. When a regular reach the top, which right now is the 134th floor, they become rankers. Rankers are the strongest beings in the tower and families are often ranked according to how many of them they have, aaaanndd I believe that's enough for now, too much information in one go can be bad for you, so any questions?".

Having heard all of this, Sylas was already in deep thought, it was a lot of new information and he needed to look for the best questions to ask this wealth of information that was his cousin Mira.

_'I think the first thing I should ask is where our family currently stands in the empire, and after that maybe I could get more information about the rankers and their abilities, to see ways to develop my strength in the future, there are no signs of my body having chakra so far, so It will do me much good to know more about the top warriors of this world'_

"in which floor are we living right now then cousin?" this was my first question and though it may seem unimportant it was still something I wanted to know.

"our family lives in the middle area of the 94th floor, so we are pretty high in the tower structure, you could say that we belong to one of the ten great families, though saying that is a bit of a stretch, our branch is really far from the main family"

_'I knew we were well off, I even suspect that we were nobles, but hearing we are part of one of the ten it's surprising, I hope our relationship with the main family is a good one'._

"so, I guess as our family name is Koon, that one of the 10 great families is named Koon, and that father is somehow related to the head of the house?" I asked

"yep, your father is one of the many grandchildren Koon Eduan has, believe me when I say that if you are not a direct descendant, then you can forget about having any say in the family, so you could say we are just a branch of a branch, though we still must answer to the family head. You should always remember that strength is everything in the empire Sylas, that's why our whole culture is based on going up the tower"

I wasn't too happy with what I just heard, though it could be worse, in the end family it's not the name but the people close to your heart, so it was not a necessity to get along with all of them.

'_I wonder if father and mother are rankers, maybe even brother? No, he must be still climbing the tower, that would explain why I have yet to see him'_

"I still don't get why people would become regulars and risk their life going up the tower, I understand that being a ranker gives one benefits, but couldn't you grow in strength without having to climb it?" this was one of the biggest concerns I had about this tower, I needed strength but I didn't want to leave my family for years while climbing and risking death.

If I could train in here and regain or maybe even surpass my previous strength on my own. then I should have no reason to climb.

"you could, but there would be a limit in what you could gain in the middle area of the tower, tell me Sylas, do you know what shinsoo is?"

"no, though I have heard the word before, I'm not sure what it means"

"Shinsoo is everywhere inside the tower, its amount varies depending which floor you are on, increasing in density with each floor you go up, it could be called the base of all the energies and it's what allows for breathing an provides moisture to all living things, but what you should know is that this energy has no limits, with it you can control the elements, gain eternal youth or even immortality, and it's the weapon of choice for all the rankers and regulars going up, that's why everyone you see looks young"

"but then if everyone looks young, how do you distinguish between ages"

" the truth is rankers could live for thousands of years, and regulars for hundreds, the more shinsoo you control and the denser the shinsoo in the environment is, the stronger your body becomes, so knowing how powerful someone is can be a good way to know if they are old, but its not a sure method and to answer your previous question, people climb the tower because shinsoo's density is higher in the inner tower, even though the upper floors middle area still has a higher density than the lower floors inner tower, once you are in the upper floors, the inner tower shinsoo will always be denser, so you see, while climbing the tower can be dangerous and it takes a long time, it allows people to transcend from humans to the existence known as a ranker"

_´hum, after hearing all of this I guess my goal is now clear, I must become a ranker in the future, though before that, I should familiarize myself with this shinsoo, I should be able to adapt some of my old techniques to this new energy or at least I hope so´_

"is cousin a ranker?" _'If she is, maybe I could begin my training right away, I'm pretty sure I could manip... cough... convince Mira of teaching me about shinsoo'._

"What! Do you think I look old? I would have you know that I'm 16 this year! Going up the tower and becoming a ranker can take you up to several centuries!"

_´wh.a…what, ce..centuries is she kidding´_

"cousin there is no way it would take that long, there are only so many floors to climb and you only have to pass a single test to go up in each"

"humph don't doubt me you little brat, the tests are not easy, and who said that there would only be one test per floor? you should know that there are even some tests that can only be done a single day of the year, what if you missed the date? And even if you hurry and pass everything on your first try, which I will tell you right now it's impossible! it would take you at least 50 years to climb"

_'this changes the few plans I just made, I wonder what I should do now... I can't nor want to leave for that long, I will have to think about this´_

"Cousin Mira, even if you are not a ranker you must be strong right? Could you teach me a little about shinsoo?"

"humph your sweet words won't affect me, I swear you are like a baby demon, trying to manipulate your loving cousin, though in this case you speak the truth, as someone who will become a ranker in the future, I have obviously learned about shinsoo"

Sweat start to gather in my brows _´this cousin of mine is really perceptive, I'm pretty sure she knows I want to learn how to manipulate shinsoo from her, there is only one choice now´_

"I just wanted to learn from you cousin Mira, you are a really good teacher and I like when I spend my time with you" sincerity plus flattery, an overpower weapon when everything else fails

.

Hearing this, Mira´s temper cool down.

"I could teach you a little, though not without your parents' permission, you are still too young, even if you are a baby demon"

_´humph this little girl is clearly dangerous, at least she only half jokes when she calls me baby demon, I think´_

"then let's go ask them right now" I needed to start shinsoo training as soon as possible, my physical training will have to wait till my body develops a little more, and I didn't want to waste more time, so the only option was to train this shinsoo energy.

"they aren't home yet little guy, we will ask them at dinner, right now it's time for a nap… all those questions tired me" after saying that she grabs my arms a proceed to throw herself and me into the bed

While resting in her arms a warm feeling starts to surface from my chest,_ 'this girl…. I guess it's not all bad being a child'._

While thinking that, I relaxed in her arms and soon sleep took over.

* * *

First chapter done, **please review**. i'm actually doing this as practice, so reviews are crucial, even if they are all negative ones.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy this story.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:

A little shorter than what i will usually post, this chapter may look a little heavy with feelings and it may also look like the mc is too out of character, but pls bear it for the moment, this is all done for a reason.

**Chapter 2**

In my sleep I dreamed of them.

They were across the river we used to play as children, and though it was far away I could steel see them clearly, they seem to be trying to tell me something.

But no matter how hard I tried It was too far away for me to hear their voices, and in my growing desperation to hear them I tried to scream at them, to tell them to use signals, but all It came out of my mouth was a choking sound, so in the end I decided to go to the other side myself, but just when I was about to begin crossing It suddenly started, at first it was just a feeling, but soon there were more than one and though they were hard to understand at first , their meaning soon hit me.

I could feel their intentions, and even though it should be hard to translate emotions into a message I knew.

They were asking for me to be free, to use this opportunity fate has given me, and be happy, they were showing me the love they had for me, that they still have for me.

While this was happening, Tyra was going up the stairs to ask both Mira and Sylas to come down for dinner.

Opening the door to his sons' room she found both of them hugging each other while asleep, seeing this a smile started to appear on her beautiful face though it soon disappears and became a frown.

_'why are there tears running down Sylas face? a nightmare? I better wake him up'_

"…las Sylas, Sylas wake up, it's just a bad dream honey"

"Mm hu mother? what's going on"

"you tell me dear, you were crying in your sleep, did you have a nightmare, are you felling ok?"

"i... i can't remember, I feel fine though. Don't worry mother" _'what was the dream about? And why was I crying?'_

"mm well if you are sure... Let's wake up your cousin and go down for dinner, oh and Sylas, would it kill you to call me mom just once? It's all mother this and mother that with you, you are hurting your mother's fillings you know"

"I have called you mom more than once, and I don't buy that sad act anymore mother"

"humph what would it take for you to act like a cute 2-year-old for once? I swear your brother was the sweetest, I will have to start working on a girl next"

"…"

After many other awkward conversations between mother and me, all 3 of us manage to arrive safely at the table where father and the food were waiting.

Seeing him I suddenly remember that Mira told me we were going to ask them for permission to start my training in shinsoo at dinner, something I had forgotten due to my mother's awkward teasing, and also due to that weird but peaceful feeling I've been having since I woke up, I quickly look in my cousin's direction to signal her to ask them but I find her stuffing her face with food….

_'how the hell did I arrive at the conclusion that she was a noble before? it must be father's fault'_

Father truly was the picture of the perfect noble, both in manners and presence, he cut an intimidated figure, though lucky for me, I'm not a normal 2-year-old nor am I easily intimidated, and seeing as I didn't want to lose any more time, I decided to just ask them myself.

"Father, mother, there is something that both Mira and I wanted to ask of you"

Hearing this, Mira stopped eating to look in my direction "there is?" she asked confused

"…." _'I swear there is something wrong with the women in this family...'_

"Oh right, today I was explaining little Sylas about the tower, and the topic of shinsoo came up, in the end he asked me to train him a little in how to use it, but seeing as he is still only 2 years old I wanted to ask for both of your opinions first"

"I see, you did well Mira, he may still be a little young to begin, what do you think Jayce?"

"I don't see a problem with Sylas starting early, he is clearly smarter than a normal boy his age"

"right right, he is clearly a baby demon" Mira stated with a proud face

_'I'm here you know…'_

"if we allow it, then there is no going back, so think carefully, you will still have to continue your reading lessons with Mira after lunch, that means there will be less free time for you"

Even though I have learned more than enough about reading, I didn't complain about the conditions my father put. My afternoons with Mira were always enjoyable and I didn't have anything better to do at the moment.

"I understand father, there is something else I would like to ask both of you"

"mmm?"

"what I wanted to know is whether you father or you mother are Rankers?"

"Your father is, though I'm afraid I haven't reached the top myself, I had an accident in the 106th floor and decided to wait for your father to finished in this floor"

_'I see, they must be both really strong, specially father, I had my suspicions but its good to know for sure'_

"then, I would like to hear stories about going up the tower when you have time, mother, father"

"you are still too young Sylas, there is not much we could tell you at your age, if Mira told you about the tower then you should know that being a regular is a dangerous thing, you must know by now that your brother Kylar is currently one, and even though we receive his messages almost daily, we still worried a lot, what I'm trying to tell you is that you shouldn't be in such a hurry to grow up, you will still have time to know more about becoming a regular in the future, ok?"

_'am I that easy to read? Impossible, I'm a battle tested ninja and leader of a village, but how is he already on to me about wanting to go up the tower? all I asked was for stories…., are they mind walkers? Knowing how Shinsoo works is becoming a priority more and more'_

While I was becoming paranoid, my mother was looking at me as if I was the funniest thing in the world

"your father didn't read your mind Sylas, children's dreams are easy to guess, boys your age and older all they think about is going up the tower and becoming a ranker" said my mother, her voice filled with mirth

"…"

_'…. I'm seriously beginning to doubt my intelligence right now, is the cause of my behavior my new baby body? Or maybe I have yet to recover my whole thinking process and smarts because of my still developing brain? there is also my personality, its clearly different from the one I had in my previous life, maybe some weird family gene is at fault, mmmm further investigation will be needed'_

"well mother, I'm still not too sure about becoming a regular, I do want to become strong but going up the tower means I will have to leave for too long, and that's not something I would like"

I could see both my cousin's and mother's eyes beginning to tear up, even my father's face was softer, did it really means that much to them, that I wanted to stay here?

"that's the sweetest thing you have ever said to us Sylas" Mother said

_'is it really? have I been that bad of a son?'_

Thinking of the past few months the answer is, yes. I have clearly been taking all the affection they throw at me and gave almost nothing in return.

For the first time since I was born, I wish I could have been reborn a normal baby without memories of a previous life to affect my behavior.

"Mom? I…I'm sorry" looking at her crying face I couldn't help but feel like scum.

_'is it really that hard to say that I love them? I know I do, so why haven't I said the words before? was it because of the family I had in my previous life? What is different now? Did I feel guilty? Right now, all I care is that the 3 people in this table eating dinner with me are something precious, they are my family and they deserve to know how I feel about them, I have neglect them enough'_

"Dad, Mom, Mira?"

Seeing that they were now all looking at me I said what I should have said a long time ago

"I love all of you a lot"

There was a second of silence and then I was up in the air in my mother's arms both she and Mira were hugging me for all they were worth, and I could even feel father's hand in my hair as well.

"we know son" said dad

The love they have for me… I don't even know why, but I could sense it, I don't think I have felt something like this before, not even in my past life, not even from my brothers, I know they did love me but… this feeling…. This..., **I will protect it forever**'

* * *

**please review**. i'm actually doing this as practice, so reviews are crucial, even if they are all negative ones.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy this story.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Today I was finally starting my training, and I can't help but feel nervous, knowing that shinsoo is the equivalent of what chakra was in my old world, means that should I failed, my road to power would only grow harder in the future. I wasn't concerned about lacking talent, I was confident that with enough time and effort I could surpass even the most talented, maybe not in speed of learning but speed isn't everything in the end and it was even less important here in the tower, where the average ranker could live for a thousand years. What I was worried about was the possibility that I wouldn't be able to sense shinsoo at all, because even if I didn't needed talent, I definitely needed at least the right conditions to be able to manipulate shinsoo at least to be able to stablish a base for me to start my growth, I haven't tried feeling for it nor experimenting yesterday, knowing that it would be better and smarter to wait having someone with me who has knowledge on the subject and one more day of waiting won't change much, luckily for me, both my mother and my father are really strong, so I should be fine on the gene department, though that did nothing to dispel my nerves.

As my agreement with Mira stated that we will meet in the garden at eight in the morning, I went down the stairs to the dining room, grabbed a fruit to eat while I waited for her outside, and quickly left the house, but surprisingly she was already there to meet me.

"Good morning little cousin" Mila said cheerfully.

waving in her direction while eating my fruit I greet her back. _'I believed she may be more excited about this than me'_

"cough, lets begin then, first things first, for the duration of this lesson you should call me shishou, understand?"

_'why am I not surprised about this'_ while feigning surprise I was quick to tell her "though I don't have a problem with calling you that, aren't you a little young to be my shishou cousin?"

"humph, you are going to be my first apprentice, so calling me shishou is only proper, but maybe you don't want to learn about shinsoo after all"

"I apologize for the disrespect shishou" _'this girl is clearly having fun, but I don't really care as long as I learned what I came to learn.'_

Nodding her head as if forgiving me for my transgression Mira quickly started to explain todays lesson plan "today we will begin with theoretical knowledge, and before you complain about wanting to start practicing right away you should know that I won't change my mind, so the sooner we finished with all the theoretical knowledge needed the sooner you will start manipulating shinsoo, understood?"

Seeing my agreement she quickly continued "so for starters let's talk about ….."

what came after was a 3 hour long lecture, and tough I admit it was relevant to know, I don't think I needed all of that to start practicing with shinsoo, in the end the most important information was that first, everyone needs to establish a contract with the administrator or guardian of the floor to be allowed to manipulate shinsoo in it, though If I understand correctly rankers have a little more freedom in this than regulars and other common people, apart from that, it seems that we as members of one of the ten families, already are born with a minor contract with the whole tower, granting us the ability to control shinsoo even before making a contract with the guardians of each floor, though it will be limited and harder to control. And second, that the basic unit of shinsoo manipulation is called Baang, its size is called Myun and the density of the shinsoo that goes inside is called Soo, apparently the strongest rankers which I learned are called 'high rankers' can normally control between 30 and 50 baangs, and a talented regular in the twenties floor could control around 2 Baangs, 3 if he is extremely talented.

Right now, I was waiting to receive permission from Mira to start my journey as a shinsoo manipulator or a Wave controller as my cousin called the ones who are specialized in this subject.

"now that the boring part is over, lets begin with the good stuff, go and try what I told you to do little Sylas, first is the contract and then you can try your hand at feeling shinsoo"

Doing as she told me, first I grabbed the Pocket she gifted me, which is a small floating black ball that can turn into invisible mode, apparently this little device not only will allow me to send a message to other people, but it will also translate different dialects into something I can understand. But its more important function is that it permits me to make a contract with the administrator.

"come on Sylas, say it"

_'….'_ "contract with the administrator"

And just like that I was in front of a giant eye_ 'it doesn't look that strong, though I know better than to underestimate …it? Him? Her? I'm not sure what to call... it'_

"are you here to make a contract" the eye said

_'how should I answer that?'_ in the end I went for simple and to the point, a short "I am" was enough, and as soon as I finished answering, a cold feeling began to spread throughout my body, though as quickly as it came it disappear, a second later there was blinding light and I was back in my garden with Mira looking at my right with relief.

Curious to know what she was looking at, I turn to my side and find my floating pocket with the words '94F contract complete' in it _'a little anticlimactic, though I should feel satisfied it was that simple'_

"well done! now that you have the contract, do what I instructed you to do, and remember to clear your mind first!"

Doing as she said, I sat in the floor while emptying my mind of wondering thoughts, after that I start trying to feel as if the world was in my hand which was what Mira said I should do, minutes passed till I finally felt a cold but pleasant feeling coming from it, opening my eyes I could see a floating blue ball of light at the top of my right palm. _'so this is shinsoo, finally, I can definitely work with this, its feeling is close to water manipulation, something which I excelled at'_

"so, how did I do cousin, am I a good disciple? And what do I do next?"

"yes yes, a true baby demon, don't worry, you didn't disappoint your beautiful cousin's expectation, as for what you should do next… I don't know"

Seeing the way I was looking at her, she hurried to explain " wait wait, it's not that I don't know what to teach you, believe me! it's just that you learned to control shinsoo faster than I thought you would, and once you learned the first step to control it, is better to let you learn on your own and see what it works best for you, though I would recommend you to ask your parents about their techniches and the ones they have seen, so you could have references, okay?"

_'this girl… how thick is her skin to make me called her shishou… I'm lucky to have seen hundreds of techniques already in my previous life, so I won't lack possibilities, though the priority of course should be the ones I'm more used to'_

"Ok, let's go inside for now, mother should be preparing lunch already" saying that, I headed for the door to take a shower before lunch.

"Hoho, good idea my faithful disciple. Who knew teaching you would be this tiring, I will need food and rest in order to recover"

"…." _'the only thing you need to recover is your dignity, you shameless girl'_ after thinking that, I tried to ignore her ramblings and headed straight for the bathroom.

During my shower, mom told me to hurry for lunch, so I couldn't have the long relaxing shower that I wanted in the beginning, but it was enough to stop thinking about my shameless cousin and continue the day with more energy.

Entering the dining room, I saw all three of them waiting for me, I quickly greeted them and sat so we could begin eating, but before I could put the first piece of meat in my mouth mom asked me something.

"how did your training with Mila go dear?"

Thinking that this could be a good moment to put the shameless girl in her place I answer

"It went fine, I managed both the contract and manipulating shinsoo, though shishou said It will be up to me to develop further"

"shishou? and what do you mean on your own?" mother asked confused

Seeing my cousin relaxed face, I couldn't help but become a little doubtful _'isn't she at least a bit nervous? She got a good poker face I will give her that'_ "cousin Mira asked me to call her shishou for I have become her first disciple, she also said that after learning to feel and manipulate shinsoo It would be better to develop my own skills alone, though I should ask you about your techniques so I could have good examples"

"I see, you have a good shishou in your cousin little Sylas" with an understanding face mom look in Mira's direction, "I'm proud of you Mira, that was really good advice, you have really become a good shishou to my son"

_'#$ #%, are the women in my family plotting against me?, do they really think leaving a 2 year old alone is the right way of training him?'_ looking in my cousins direction I could see a crack in her poker mask, _'I knew it, this crazy girl didn't know what else too teach so she just told me some half-baked excuse to save face'_

Seeing the expression on my face, father took pity on me and explain. "though not a common way of teaching, its true that your cousin was right in a way son, the way shinsoo interacts with a body is different for every person, though in most cases families have certain characteristics in common that makes them share abilities and even fighting styles, you still have a long way before that. What you should focus right now its just refining your control and trying to surpass it every day, you could do this by trying to create a baang and changing the amount of shinsoo inside of it, or making it as dense as possible, and once you have managed this you could start with two bangs and so on, though it could take you years before you are ready for multiple bangs at the same time"

After hearing dad's explanation, I couldn't help but agree with him, though I was curious about what he said too _'does our family have a special bloodline I should know of?'_ thinking this, I decided to ask him about it.

"Then, does the Koon family specialize in anything regarding shinsoo? And what about you, mom, what is your specialty?"

"it's a little early for you to think of techniques son, though it won't be bad for you to know either, so I will explain a little. As you know while climbing the tower you would have to form a team, which will aid you in passing the different challenges you will face, and every member on said team will have a different 'position' which will affect the direction he should train himself in the future. Our head of family, Koon Eduan, is known for his spear throwing skills and changing the properties of his shinsoo to lightning and ice, so most of the members of our family are spear bearers, and some share a little of his talent regarding lightning or ice, in my case is lightning, though my talent with it is not even close to the level direct descendants have."

_'it's seems somewhat similar to bloodlines, though it looks like the further down you go in the family tree the less chance of inheriting a trait you have, and even if you do inherit one, it will be weaker than the original or the ones direct descendants inherit'_ having heard my father's explanation, I look now at my mother, waiting to hear about her skills as well, but seeing her face I cant help but feel that something is wrong. _'why does she look so dejected?'._

"w.. , my side of the family don't have anything as useful a lightning or ice, but we do have a certain skill that is passed to our children, but I wont be mad if you don't want to learn it, your brother didn't, preferring to focus on his lightning skills, you only have so much time after all and you should use it wisely, I will understand if you prefer your fathers skills over mine"

seeing the way my mother was behaving, like her confident had been shattered I couldn't help but feel angry at the one responsible, _'if this is my brother's fault then I will definitely master my mothers skills and show him up when I see him, though I should wait to hear more before making assumptions'_ while thinking about vengeance to the one who hurt my mother's confidence I decided to press her on so she would explain further.

"I'm sure it will be a useful skill to learn mother, you have climbed to a really high floor after all" I tried giving her a little of her confidence back, but maybe because I mentioned that she didn't managed to climb to the top, she just look more depressed. Looking at my father for help he just signal me that he will talk to me later while speaking to my mother.

"Tyra, you know I would have never survived the tower without you and your runes to help me along, what happened at the 106th floor was not your fault, I have already said it many times before and I will say it again now, your runes are amazing" after saying that father went besides mother and while hugging her he started to whisper something on her ear that I couldn't hear.

_'It seems that something happened in the 106th floor that shook my mother's confidence and made her give up on becoming a ranker, I hope father will tell me a little of what happened later, but what is this I heard about runes? If it is what I think it is, it could be a huge help to me, a type of fuinjutsu applied to shinsoo maybe?' A big part of my strength in the past was because of fuinjutsu, if there is a way to bring back that strength in here I should definitely take it, but to start celebrating early is not wise, I will have to wait after I know more on the subject' _while I was making an effort in calming my over excited heart, I suddenly hear a half choking half sobbing sound coming from my left, knowing the only person that was there was my cousin, I quickly look to the left and find her trying to suppress her escaping tears, seeing farther down I could also see blood coming from one of her clenched fists. Rapidly Copying my father's actions, I move closer while hugging her from the side. _'I hope this works, I wouldn't know what else to do if it fails'_ luckily it seems it did, while using me as support she soon calm down and her breathing came back to normal though remembering her reaction, I can't help but think that what happened in the 106th floor involved Mira as well, _'but isn't that impossible? she wasn't even born at the time'_. Seeing her in that state I was sure though _'there is a connection I'm missing'._

After everything at the table was back to normal or as normal as was possible after that kind of emotional breakdown, and after succumbing to mine and father's pleading, mother decided to continue explaining about her runes.

"Sylas, I want you to try and forget what you just saw ok? And I don't want you to think that by declining to learn about runes I would feel sad because that isn't true at all, what happened before has nothing to do with your decision or the one your brother made before you. So before I begin, remember that I wont feel bad if you decided that my families runes are not for you okay?, it's not an easy skill to master and it is true that practicing others skills could be more time-efficient, so don't be afraid to decide against learning it" mother wait for me to nod before continuing with the explanation

"Right then, first of all, you should know that I came from a small clan of nomads that lived in the outer tower of the 33th floor, and as we have told you before, in the outer tower most people don't know that they live inside a tower nor about regulars, rankers or Zahard, so while my tribe could use runes to affect the shinsoo in the environment we didn't know how to manipulated it directly. That is why runes were a sign of status and power in the tribe, but because of the difficulty in its learning not all the people in the clan could use it. The better way to think about Runes is imagining a complex language with infinite possibilities, though its potential it's up to the user, my clan used three hundred and twenty different symbols, and believe me when I said the combinations are endless, so most people just memorize patterns for later use" seeing that I was following with interest she seems to gain a little confidence back

"It was soon noticed by the elders that I was a prodigy in it, and because I didn't used patterns as most users, I had a lot of more freedom in its applications, though my specialty have always been shinsoo barriers, because of this ability or at least I think it was because of it, soon after I turned nineteen Headon showed up and asked me to become a regular, after agreeing I started to climb the tower, and the rest is a different tale".

_'I knew it, my mother is really strong as well, and by the way she spoke of runes it looks like there is a high chance fuinjutsu and runes are related somehow, what are the odds that in this world there is another clan of redheads runemasters?' _after seriously thinking what my next move should be and looking at my mother's anxious face, I decided.

"Mother, would you take me as your disciple?"

* * *

**please review**. i'm actually doing this as practice, so reviews are crucial, even if they are all negative ones.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy this story.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Later that day, while I was practicing in the garden, dad came looking for me. And though I knew what he wanted to talk about I decided I should wait for him to start the conversation, so in the mean time I continued to change the density of my one floating baang from a gaseous almost transparent ball to a silver shining ball of destruction or at least I hope for destruction, I have yet to learned to attack with it.

"you are advancing far faster than I did at first, maybe I should become a little more involved with your training"

Looking at him with a weird face I couldn't help but think he was jealous of mother_ 'but is he really jealous that I choose mother to learn from? It isn't as if he couldn't teach me as well, and I don't believe him to be that kind of person, he seemed really happy for mother when she accepted to become my master, though I do feel a little bad for Mira, she lost her title as my master in a single day.'_

_'I wonder what learning faster have to do with being involved with my training? And couldn't mother have helped me? She is my master now after all'_ thinking of this I decided to ask for the reason

"but father, you told me earlier today that it would be better for me to practice controlling shinsoo on my own… why are you suddenly changing your mind?"

With an awkward face father seemed to hesitate before saying "well, your mother thought it would be good for you to learn what I had to teach as well, she said that it will keep you safer in the future and I agreed with her"

_'mmm is he hiding something? maybe mother thinks I will quit her training when things get difficult and she is trying to soften the blow? I'm not sure what they are thinking but its not as if I can't use his help'_

"I would be happy to have your help father, though is it okay to spend your time training me? I thought you were busy with the tasks the family has given you"

"don't worry about that, I will ask for a leave of my duties for a couple of months, your only worry should be training, understood?" nodding in answer I continued practicing shinsoo, while dad advise me from the side, we spent the whole afternoon in this manner before he finally said with a little hesitation "about what happened with your mother at lunch, it will be better if you forget about the whole thing, she is better now that you asked her to learn from her, in fact she is happier than I have seen her in a long time, so If you want to help her, then just do your best as her student" hearing that, I was a little reluctant to forget the whole thing, remembering both mother and Mira's tears, and angry feeling took over me.

"what if I cant forget about it? I know something happened to mother in that floor and that it may have to do with Mira as well. even though im young, you know that im far more mature than I look, as a member of this family I would like to understand, so please father"

Seeing that father still looked doubtful I started thinking what else I could say to convince him, but before I could do anything he replied "I will tell you the minimum necessary for you to understand, so listen well. Someone attacked our team on that floor, I was away at the time, but your mother was taking care of the rest of the team that was at the house we were using as a base, they were recuperating after we passed the test to go up in the previous floor, both of Miras parents were in our group, besides that, there were two others that have been with us since floor 20, the four of them were injured in the previous test, so your mom stayed behind to look after them, while I was gone to buy for supplies, when I came back both my brother and her wife were heavily injured, your mother as well, and our other teammates were death" a chilling feeling came over my body hearing my fathers icy tone, seeing that he wasn't going to continue I decided to ask him before I missed the opportunity

"if Mira was born, shouldn't that mean that both her parents survived the attacked?" _'why was she so sad then?'_

Understanding what I meant, father said "its true that they survived, but their injuries were really grave so they couldn't continue to climb the tower, and in the end, it was because of those injuries that they died, as high ranking regulars both their bodies were really strong and they should have lived for several centuries, but they could never recover fully and their injuries reduced their life expectancy by a lot, in the end they died soon after Mira was born".

_'so that's the reason Mira was sad, and mother too was left with guilt and must have lost the confidence she had in her skills, she must have decided to quit the tower and stay behind with Miras parents, so of the whole team, only father became a ranker in the end. But why wouldn't father mentioned the ones behind the attack?'_

"who was it behind the attack father" I couldn't help but want revenge, the memory of earlier today was telling me that I had to do something, that the sadness they cause my loved ones shouldn't be unpaid, and that feeling must have manifested in my voice, because father looked at me with pity and anger.

"so you wanted revenge son? Do you not think I would have had it myself if it was possible with strength alone? What can you do that I, a high ranker cant?, I have told you before, your only concern should be with training, both your mother and myself aren't training you just for you to die later on, in this tower might makes right, and vengeance is a privilege only the strong have" fathers angry voice made my anger cool down significantly

_'he is right, though I would like to know the names of the ones responsible, right now my only concern should be gaining strength, im just a 2 year old asking his father for names to have vengeance against enemies that even a high ranker as him couldn't hope to defeat, no wonder he is this angry, It must have been both ridiculus and insulting….my only hope is that maybe later on if I showed enough promised he may trust me enough to tell me more.'_

"im sorry father, I just…it was hard.. seeing mother in that way"

"I have already told you what you should do if you want her happier, both Mira and your mother love and care for you a great deal, your happiness is enough for us"

"…."

Sensing my reluctance, he couldn't help but sigh "I understand your feeling Sylas, but remember we are training you for the future, not for the past, even if you grow stronger than me, use that strength so that you will succeed where we failed".

Nodding at what he said, we didn't speak of that topic anymore and continued training till dinner, mothers lessons were going to start tomorrow, so my schedule is pretty full, my mornings will be taken over by father, after lunch it will be mother, and at night I will have time with Mira to continue gathering information about the tower.

On the next day, I completed my morning routine as usual and head down the stairs to grabbed something to eat before my training with father. The day continued normally till it was time for my first training session with mother, heading to her workroom I knocked on her door to let her know I had come for my lesson.

"Come in Sylas" hearing that, I entered the room, it wasn't my first time entering this place so I already known how it looked, an old desk, white pristine floor, and a big couch on the corner, but my attention was needed on my mother so that's were my sight was directed, she was standing in the middle of the room with a 2 books in her hands.

"Are you ready to begin? You should know that there is a high chance you will feel bored, and considering your age I would not be surprising if you wanted to quit, there is little else but books on runic knowledge and writing for the first few months" mother said, though this time there was little doubt in her voice, she was completely serious

_'If only you knew mother, I will probably just end up asking for more hours of training'_

"I'm ready" I replied, my voice full of confidence

"Then have this here" giving me both of the books she had been holding, she explained further "both of those books will be the focus of your training, the bigger one is the runic equivalent of a dictionary that I have translated from the one I used when I started training, and the other one is full of problems for you to solve, so grabbed a pen and we will begin with the first one"

Both of us sat at the floor, and following her instructions I open the smaller book looking for the first challenge that I needed to pass, what I found was hardly surprising, lots of tiny symbols that I didn't understand were waved together to form something similar to the drawing of a sun. _'mmm definitely like fuinjutsu'_

Mistaking my thinking face for one of confusion, mother hurried to explain "silly Sylas, you are going to need the dictionary if you want to have any hope in understanding the runes, that's why I gave it to you". Following that, she took the dictionary and found the matching runes, "see?, this one is formed by multiple runes for 'fire' and , 'heat' and 'connection' runes, that we will see later today, together they allow a runemaster to make shinsoo take the properties of fire" seeing my highly focus faced she once again mistook it for one of confusion so she added to comfort me "don't worry if you don't understand it yet, just remember it and it will get clearer in the future".

"I think I understand it mother, would I be correct in assuming the runes assigned to the five elements are the core of this language? And that by waving supporting runes and connection runes with them you form different patterns to manipulate shinsoo?" obviously I haven't guessed all of that by just looking at the first page, but what I said is almost exactly as fuinjutsu worked, so I just took a chance after seeing how similar they looked.

"…."

_'was it to much?, ….what the hell was I thinking it was clearly too much too soon, if she wasn't suspicious before she will Definitely be now'_ reprimanding myself in my head I tried to fixed my mistake while coming up with an excuse "eh you see I have re…" "my son…" ….."yes..?"

"you… you…"

_'#$% '_

"you are a GENIUS!, I can't believe my son is such a genius hahahahahaha, you will definitely become a master, no no a grandmaster!"

"…" _'forgot how weird the women in this family are'_

It took several minutes for her to stopped salivating and thanking the heavens for my supposed genius, but after she calmed herself she asked "but son, I would like to know, how did you thought all of that just by seeing the first page?" _'thankfully I had enough time to prepare an answer she would accept while she was busy celebrating'_

With all the seriousness I could gathered in my 2-year-old voice I said

"it's just clicked"

"woahh you are definitely a genius little Sylas!" _'now I understand when people said that a genius thinking process is impossible to follow'_. While my mother was trapped in her own fantasies a different voice could be heard through the door

"definitely a baby demon"

_'what is this girl doing spying on my lesson?'_ I could easily picture the image of her nodding along while saying that in my head

heading over to the door to asked her what the hell was she doing, I quickly opened it and found her already running away.

"…" _'what the hell is wrong with the women in this family?'_

and that's how the first lesson with my mother concluded.

* * *

**please review**. i'm actually doing this as practice, so reviews are crucial, even if they are all negative ones.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy this story.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**

I am currently studying for an exam that I have in 2 days, so there probably won't be any more chapters till Wednesday.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy it.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

The next 3 years were the most enjoyable and productive of my short life. Even though some could complain by saying I did the same things every day, for me that was not only what I wanted but it seemed as if my family was happier as well. I even found out from mother, that father was training me not because she asked him to, but because he wanted to become closer to me. He was probably embarrassed by the real reason and ended up using mother as an excuse. Whatever the cause we ended up becoming a lot closer as a result, and his help was crucial for me to finally succeeded in a few of my projects. It was a shame that after the first 6 month, he had to go back to work for the family. I'm still not sure what his various tasks are about, I didn't ask knowing he wouldn't have told me anything. If there is one thing I have learned about him, is that he is really picky about what stories he mentioned about the tower when he is in my presence. He is obviously trying stop me from growing up too fast. Sadly for him, he is several decades too late in that regard.

Luckily for me, my cousin was actually pretty knowledgeable in some of the topics I needed for my techniques, so I was smoothly flying through all the goals I had put for myself. in conclusion, I was more than satisfied with my progressed in shinsoo manipulation. But the true winner of my 3-year long training marathon were my runes, I had already mastered all there was for me to learn from the books, so mother gave me free room for me to experiment by creating my own patterns. Obviously, I abused my previous fuinjutsu skills and rapidly 'created' a lot of new runic arrays for us to use, mother's reaction to this…. well it could be said that she was extremely 'excited' about my creations, though the less said about it the better.

My appearance had changed as well, I had already started my physical training for a year now even if it was only light stretches and a few basic katas, it showed in my growth. I was currently checking my appearance in the bathroom mirror and I have to say that I resemble my mother the most. The boy in front of me was around 50 inches tall, with long dark blue hair and the same face and red eyes my mother has, a little girly in my opinion but that could change with time. Deciding I had wasted enough time reflecting about my looks I finished dressing up and went to look for my cousin, she said yesterday that she was planning something to help me in my training.

While leaving the house for the garden, which was our usual meeting place, I couldn't help but think about mother's words this morning, she had been acting weird for a few days now _'what did she meant by saying that I should start thinking of names, is she going to gift me a pet?'_ even if I had asked her about the possibility of summoning a beast companion with shinsoo months ago, I didn't think she would actually take this so seriously. _'Though a partner to help me fight wouldn't be bad'_.

Arriving at my destination and seeing that Mira had yet to arrive, I walked forward to the medium size pond and without stopping at the edge I applied one of the numerous gains I had from these 3 years, water walking. It was actually pretty simple and nothing new according to father, but it was a good learning experience for me nonetheless as the process I used to learn it was similar to the ones I used with chakra, which was great news for my future training.

Once in the middle of the pond I started with the core exercise for shinsoo manipulation, forming baangs. The truth is that I have yet to grow accustomed to attack from these floating balls, I much prefer gathering them in my mouth and proceed to shaped them into similar techniques as the ones I used before. Though according to Mira, I looked ridiculous when I do it. I don't really care though, being the target of a high pressure shinsoo cannon will make them stop laughing for sure, even if it is coming from my mouth, which I actually thinks looks better than using floating balls.

I continued to practice in this manner till Mira arrived. Seeing her appearance, I was a little surprise, she was wearing one of the sparring armors mom have kept from her time as a regular, _'is she planning to fight me?'_ I have yet to spar in this life and was actually looking forward to it.

Seeing that I was looking at her armor Mira decided to explain her plan "you have probably already guessed what we will be doing today. I have decided it is about time for you to experience a fight" her voice sound serious and sad, which made me a little worried

"Is everything ok cousin?" she was acting out of character, which meant something must have happened.

"I'm fine little Sylas, I just thought it was time for you to experience a fight, and even if this is just a spar, I expect you to fight seriously and try to hurt me, ok?"

_'is she preparing me for something?'_ I already know about the Koons tradition and the fighting I will have to take part when I reach 10 years of age, but that cant be it. 5 years is a long time to prepare, so what's going on?

I nod at her question and took a fighting stance which would allow me to take advantage of my smaller body.

Seeing I had taken the initiative, a grin came to Mira's mouth "hoho, is the little demon impatient to fight his favorite cousin?"

While ignoring her question, which have become a tradition by now, I reinforced my legs with shinsoo and stomped on the pond below, causing a water wall high enough to cover my full height to spread in all directions. which was more than enough for me to use it as an escaping distraction and hide myself in the trees.

"mmm not bad Sylas, but hiding won't help you that much, I can simply wait for you to come out in the open" Mira's confident voice travelled through the garden and arrived at my ears.

_'I had decided to not hide my strength from my family, so you are out of luck cousin'_. thinking of a plan, I quickly concentrate on gathering the shinsoo in the environment, soon there was a dense fog covering most of the garden.

"mmm, what is this? Mist? I thought you were still having problems with making shinsoo take water properties" she sounds a little impressed though also more guarded

I have yet to learn to project my voice with shinsoo, so I remained silent. my plan was to attack while she was distracted in the mist, a pretty simple plan which I favored. Simpler plans are easier to improve and change on the fly, which is an advantage for an experienced warrior. After all, most plans don't fully survive first contact with the enemy.

_'hmm It should be enough now'_ after an appropriate amount of time to make her tense, I acted. Taking a couple of rocks from my pouch, I sensed my cousins positioned using the mist and throw them both. One in front of her and the other at her right leg. After that I reinforced my legs with shinsoo and used the tree as support to launch myself directly at her left side. She reacted as expected, the first stone caught her attention which made her easier to caught of guard from behind, the second serve to destabilize her stance which I took advantage from, with her right side already compromised I just needed to take the left, which I did. After tripping her and Pressing one of my wooden knifes to her neck, I said with a calm voice.

"I win cousin, you underestimate me, and now you are death because of it". Though it may sound weird coming from a child, I was trying to make an impression on her, so in the future when it really matters, she won't make the same mistake. _'to be honest she was expecting a strong but inexperienced 5-year-old, not an experienced warrior'_ even then I knew she will remember this when it matters, which was the entire point of the fight.

Taking her defeat well, and making Sylas almost regret putting the effort of teaching her a valuable lesson, she said "mm mm, you are right, I was expecting a baby demon, but it looks like you have evolved sooner than expected, I wonder what I should call you from now on"

"my name should be enough Mira, now let's fight again. This time, do your best, no holding back."

The next 4 fights were much better, with two wins for Mira, one for me and the last which we couldn't finished as it was time for dinner.

Later that day, after taking a shower I opened the door and found Mira in front of me. "were you spying while I was showering?" _'it wouldn't surprise me at all if she was'_

"humph, you wish. I wanted to talk to you about earlier today" looking at me as if waiting for something, I kept my silence and decided to wait for her to continue.

After a few seconds she started to talk again "I'm stronger than you Sylas"

"mm, you are"

"but you defeated me"

"I did, but only twice, and of those the first one was your own fault" _'I think I know where this is headed'_

"you know what I mean, you fight smarter, like you had done it a hundred times before. I barely managed to win two times and that was me no holding back at all."

_'She looks a little sad'_ while a little worried that I hurt her confidence, I was a bit nervous of the direction this was heading as well, so I tried to prevent further suspicions.

"Mira, you are right when you said I fight smarter. But that is just something I'm good at, you have your own talents. And fighting smarter is something you could easily improve"

"it's not that..., I'm not jealous or anything"

"then what's wrong?" I'm honestly a little confused, I'm pretty sure she is a little upset about losing, but she was fine when I won the first time….

Too soft to hear, she replied "I'm s…..t…e…er…ing…"

"what?" _'is she nervous?'_

"that… I'm the older one, I'm supposed to be able to protect you, not the other way around idiot" hearing her voice cracking, I did one of the most useful things I learned in this new life…. hugging. Father certainly knew what he was doing when he used this technique on mom, it really is overpower

"I too want to protect you cousin, father and mother as well. isn't this what family do? But Why can't we protect each other? if you are worried about not being strong enough, why don't we continue sparring daily? It is good practice and we could grow in strength together"

"fine, but you can't take it back now that you promised to do it! you definitely have to teach me all of your tricks!"

"…"

_'even if I don't know much about women, isn't this changed of mood a little fast? did she tricked me?'_ Its fine with me anyways, the stronger she is, the less worried I will be, and I could use a sparring partner.

"don't worry, I will definitely keep it" _'silly girl, don't complain about the training later'_

"oh, now that I think about it, you didn't you use your runes in any of our fights at all. Were you holding back?" now glaring at me, it seemed as if she wanted to enter my mind and find the answer herself.

_'First sad, then happy and now angry, I'm starting to remember why I stayed single before'_ "To use runes I need to have them prepared beforehand cousin, though its true that I could have prepare them while in hiding, I didn't have my rune's equipment with me" mother had told me that she was working on a way to project completed arrays with shinsoo through our hands, to make them more reliable in battle. If she manages to succeed, I could even use runes to help me shape shinsoo into techniques beyond the realm of my control, I obviously offered my help, but she told me to focus on my training.

"mm, prepared beforehand? where do you store them? And what if you need a new rune during battle?"

"we use a small knife known as shinsoo cutter, with it we draw them in the air by cutting the shinsoo in the environment and procced to store them in rings, which we could later use to activate them. If we need a new rune, we could always draw them in the shinsoo and use them immediately in battle, though that's not really time-effective". To improve this limitation, is why mother is researching ways to projected them directly from our minds through our hands, though I had no idea how she is planning on doing it.

Because her clansmen couldn't use shinsoo directly, to activate the runic arrays they always added a shinsoo gathering rune to charge it. But obviously this way of activating runes was not fast enough during battle, so the whole system she and I use, was created solely by her when she entered the inner tower and learned to manipulate shinsoo directly.

"mmm those rings seem useful, you should definitely gift me one with an awesome rune inside in the future little Sylas" after saying that with a happy face, she turned around and left me standing alone….

"…" _'shameless, once she's gotten what she wanted she just leave. at least try to hide your real intentions a little... I will just add runes knowledge to her training, she is going to need It to activate the ring'_. I decided to head over directly to bed, I was tired and tomorrow there is a new day of training to complete.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

A few weeks had passed since Mira and I started sparring together and nothing exciting or new happened during that time. I had gotten used to water manipulation which surprised my parents when they saw it but apart from that, training was continuing normally. Until today that is, because mother had asked for a family meeting and I was actually kind of nervous about it, she have never asked for one before, though father looked calm and also happy, so it couldn't be bad news.

After we were done eating dinner, dad excuse himself saying he needed to go look for something. While Mila and mom talked about their day, I was distracted trying to guess the purpose of today's gathering. Sadly there was no clue for me to formulate a theory, in the end I just decided to wait and see.

When father came back, he was carrying with him some kind of black box which I have never seen before. But looking at it both Mira and mother seemed to recognize it and became excited.

"Are we going to see him? Its been years since we last did" Mira seemed about to start dancing with joy

"Yes, it wouldn't be a family meeting with the family incomplete, would it? he said he was stopping in the 30th floor to use one of the workshop's conference rooms, so I choose today as our meeting day." Mother answered sharing her joy

Hearing all of this, I obviously realized that they were talking about my still unknown and mysterious brother.

When the installations were completed and everything was ready, all we had to do was wait for brother to call us. I was honestly a little excited as well, I couldn't help but be curious about this brother I had never seen before.

Not even a minute passed and there was a ringing sound coming from the black screen box. Hurrying to answer the call, mother pressed the green button. Suddenly, a strange but at the same time kind of familiar figure appeared on the screen.

"Kylar!" both mom and Mira screamed

hearing their cries, the young-looking man chuckled and answered "Its good to see you mom, I had missed you and you as well little Mira, though it doesn't seem as is if I can call you little anymore. You have grown even more beautiful since I left, both of you have"

As this was happening, I was studying my brother intently. Same as Mira, he shared all of the Koons traits, light blue hair, a little darker blue eyes and pale skin. Though his resemblance to mother could be seen in his face as well, it seems as if both of us inherited mothers' facial features. _'that's why he looked so familiar'_ It was like imagining an older me only with lighter hair and blue eyes.

When I finished with my analysis, I started to pay attention to the what was happening inside the room again._ 'it seems as if the initial greetings are over, but why is he looking at me so intenly?'_

"mmm I see now. you were right mother, he looks a lot like my younger self"

"Hello Sylas, I'm Kylar your older brother" waving a hand in my direction he introduces himself. He seemed nervous though I can't really blame him, as I was the same.

"Hello brother, I have heard a lot about you" I decided to start with a neutral answer, there was no way we could act as normal brothers when this is the first day we are interacting.

"you have? All good things I hope"

"yes, they don't stop complaining that I should act more like you, so don't worry" this should calm him down

"what?" the surprise in his voice made me a little suspicious. _'why would he be surprised about that?'_ seemingly guessing my question he added

"They are definitely tricking you, they used to always complain about me as well. Believe me when I say that you should be careful about those two."

Suddenly I started to feel that there was hope for the beginning of a connection to form between us brothers. "you believe that as well? I had thought I was the only one who noticed. Father always acted normal when they do or say something weird"

"Yes, they were the same in the past, listen well little brother though it was hard, I had gained a lot of wisdom by surviving those two on my own, I will now pass this knowledge onto you"

While we were too deep in our brotherly moment that was caused by mutual hardships, we had forgotten that both the causes of said hardships were present.

So when I was receiving crucial advice to survive this family with my mind intact, a dooming feeling started creeping down my back. '_what? Oh #$%, I'm death' _those were my exact thoughts. And it looked like they were reflected on my face because seeing the change in my expression, brother too notices that something was not right, and seems like he also found the answer. though, his quickly paling face did nothing to calm my growing fear.

"Boys... I hope for your wellbeing that you were just joking with each other" _'#$%, who knew mother could be this scary?' _with her pale scary face, red hair and eyes. she was definitely a demon in human form right now.

"ye-yeah, joking we were just joking mother. You know how it is, I have never seen my little brother before, so I had to do something to break the ice ha-ha-ha".

_'Good one brother, it seems that you truly are an expert at this'_. Quickly following my only path to salvation I hurried to say "yes, I was just following on the joke big brother made, I thought this was a common thing for brothers to do, I'm sorry if I offend you mother, Mira too".

Seeing that their faces were no longer demonic, I began to relax, while also looking at my brother with a relieved face. He was looking in my direction, but his expression was not one of relief but one filled with pride instead, it actually felt nice. _'this is not so bad'_.

Seeing that introductions were over, and everything was back to normal, father quickly took over the meeting. "as you know your mother or aunt in your case little Mira, called for a meeting. so, we should let her have her say. After that there will be enough time to catch up".

I'm pretty sure father knew what all this was about, so I didn't understand his mysterious act that much. Stopping my rambling thoughts, I decided to look at mother and wait to hear the big news.

Seeing as it was her moment, Mother started with the purpose of this meeting, and when I say started, I meant start and finish in one go.

"I'm pregnant"

"woooaaah, congratulations aunt Tyra! You are just on time! I was actually looking for a replacement. Sylas is being mean to me during training, I'm in need of a better cousin! oh and congratulations to you as well uncle!".

"mm don't worry Mira, I promised this future daughter of mine will definitely surpass your expectations" happy that her news was being received with enthusiasm by the other female in the family, she now looked in both mine and brother's direction.

"…." _'#$% is this truly happening?' _looking at my father I could see he was a little exasperated but also very serious, so yes this was actually happening, there was only one person who I could count on now.

"brother?"

"…. I'm also very happy, though a little warning would have been good mother" his words meant that I was on my own.

_'I' am of course, really happy about becoming an older brother in the future. The problem I had was the unnecessary and endless teasing…. but there was nothing I could do about it'_. "of course I'm happy as well mother, but as brother said, it was a little sudden. You should be more tactful in the future"

Seeing that her news were well received mother continued to talk "what about names Sylas, have you thought of any?"

_'fuck, I completely forgot about that, so this was what she meant, I thought she was referring to a future pet or the like'_ "not yet mother, but how are you so sure that the baby will be a girl?"

"it's a mother's instinct Sylas"

Hours continued to pass, and it was finally time to end the call. everyone but me had said their farewells, so now it was finally my turn to say good bye to brother.

"it was nice meeting you Sylas, maybe I will get to see you in person before you start your climb and teach you a couple of things, though if you become a regular first, I hope you can climb fast! Otherwise it would take too long to see you in person" Kylar half joked

"mm, you better climb faster, or I will definitely surpass you when I enter the tower"

"I will be waiting for that day little brother" after saying that, there were a few advice and warnings both from mother and father and finally the box went black again.

"Aren't you happy Sylas? You will have a little sister to dote on in a few months" breaking the silence Mother seemed focused on me now. She looked a little worried, probably thinking I will be jealous because I won't be the youngest anymore.

Trying to assuage her worries I quickly answered "I already said that I'm happy mother, and don't worry I will pick a good name for my sister"

"Mm you better choose a cute one" seemingly satisfied with my answer mother couldn't help but smile.

"We should go to bed, it's gotten late and there are things to do in the morning" as the voice of reason of the family, it was father who added that.

Nodding along I quickly said my good nights to them and went to prepare for bed. _'today was good, I got to meet my brother and now I will be getting a little sister, from now on I will work harder than ever. I can't take it easy anymore, as a big brother my duty is clear and to do it right strength will be necessary'_. Till now my training while intense, was done without direction, but that stops now. I have gotten all the basics down and it's time for me to choose and plan my endgame. I will continue to train my water affinity. Besides that, I should also start focusing on researching time-space runes, the Flying Thunder God Technique will be a good ability to have this time around too. Besides my runes and water Shinsoo I should also pick a weapon. A sword of lightning like in the past would be a good choice, with it and my water affinity I could make combination attacks. In the end I'm aiming to become an improve copy of my past self, at least for now. It's the best choice I have, and there is plenty to work for till I'm done remastering everything, after that who knows. besides Shinsoo will allow me to carry my abilities farther than ever before which will also open new possibilities for me, but that is far into the future.

With a new focus and motivation I quickly felled sleep feeling excited for tomorrow.

The next few months were hard for me, my research into time-space runes was coming really slow, which I should have expected but still frustrated me. My water affinity was easier as all I have to do was improve my Shinsoo control which will translate into more water for my attacks. Besides that I have asked father for a lightning sword telling him about me wanting to combine both water and lightning. He agreed with me that it was a good idea, but he didn't know were to get one. Though he said he knew someone who we could ask in the future. In the end I got a standard short sword similar to a ninjato though thinner, and a copy of it made out of wood, it would suffice till I could get the one I wanted. Father also warned me to only use the wooden one for now. I didn't have a problem with that as it was only for training, so I complied easily.

The feeling of excitement which had begun to fade because of my lack of progress, rekindled again today. Father have just told us that we were going to the building were the main family reside. As mother was about to give birth and it was a Koon's tradition for all births of the family to happen there.

It seems that I was born there as well, something I can't remember due to my awareness being suppressed for the first eight months of my life.

Deciding It would be a good idea to be prepared for everything, I grabbed the box under my bed that contained the different rings I had. I planned to choose a few to take with me. My first pick was the one that holds the storage rune, which will be helpful in carrying my multiple throwing knifes and swords. After that I chose the one holding a paralysis seal in it, which as the name says, it can paralyze the body parts of a person temporarily, though I will need to touch the target to apply the seal as all of my ring's projections are done through my hands. The final three I chose were, one for absorbing lightning Shinsoo, and two others which were both barrier types. All of the rings were plain in appearance, looking like small silver metal bands. luckily, they were extremely tough, forged with a special kind of metal alloy made with Shinsoo, so I wasn't worried that they will break when fighting with my fists.

After finishing my preparations I went to helped mother with packing, she was already close to giving birth so the less she moves the better. Mira was already helping her carry our bags to the front door, so I did the same with the ones she was holding in her hands.

"Here mom, let me take care of this, just rest till father gets here" this pregnancy made me a little nervous, and it also made me realize that I didn't knew anything about healing with Shinsoo, a mistake I will try to correct in the future.

"thank you dear, your father and the envoys of the family should be about to arrive. So we will just wait by the door, there is no reason for me to rest for such a short time"

_'envoys? I thought we were pretty unimportant in the family, actually this whole tradition of having to give birth in the main family mansion is making me a little suspicious' _deciding that asking about it was the best way to clear my doubts, I did just that. "aren't we a branch that is really far from the head of the family mother? Why would they send envoys?"

Hearing the question, it wasn't my mother who answered but Mira. "its true that we are an unimportant branch in the family, but uncle status is pretty high, I told you a long time ago that strength is everything here in the tower and your father is a high ranker little Sylas"

I could understand why they would send envoys if father's status was that high, but even if sending envoys was normal, I was still suspicious about everyone in the family having to give birth there.

Before I could ask about it, there was a knock on the door. _'I guess my doubts will have to wait'_. While Mira opened it, I was preparing myself to meet for the first-time other members of the Koon family that weren't actually family, at least in mi opinion.

There in the entrance was father, and behind him there was a floating platform which was already carrying two other people, both with the same hair and eyes than father. Entering the house and giving mother a kiss, father signals for us to follow.

Just like that, our journey to the main house of the Koon family began. I couldn't help but feel that we were making a huge mistake.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Flying Thunder God Technique,** before this Technique can be performed, the user must mark a target with the 'sealing/rune formula'. Once applied he will be able to teleport to said formula's location. there is no limit to how many targets can be marked, nor would they disappear once used.

Helloo, Thanks for reading this story, i hope you are enjoying it. There will be more chapters this week, i think. (;..;) and pls leave a review if you can. your opinions are important for me to improve and to know how i'm doing so far :)


End file.
